diff --git a/utils/extract_official_train_test_set_from_mat.py b/utils/extract_official_train_test_set_from_mat.py
index 8bfd257..902d242 100644
--- a/utils/extract_official_train_test_set_from_mat.py
+++ b/utils/extract_official_train_test_set_from_mat.py
@@ -84,11 +84,11 @@ def convert_image(i, scene, depth_raw, image):
     print("reading", sys.argv[1])
 
     images = h5_file['images']
-    scenes = [u''.join(chr(c) for c in h5_file[obj_ref]) for obj_ref in h5_file['sceneTypes'][0]]
+    scenes = [u''.join(chr(c[0]) for c in np.array(h5_file[obj_ref])) for obj_ref in h5_file['sceneTypes'][0]]
 
     print("processing images")
     for i, image in enumerate(images):
         print("image", i + 1, "/", len(images))
         convert_image(i, scenes[i], depth_raw[i, :, :].T, image.T)
 
-    print("Finished")
\ No newline at end of file
+    print("Finished")